background: ramsar (mazandran province) is known for its extremely high levels of natural background radiation. although no excess cancer rate is reported in these areas by epidemiological studies, the study of tumor markers in the inhabitants of these areas may shed some light on the impact of high levels of background radiation on cancer induction. materials and methods: the level of backgrou...

BACKGROUND Nanobodies, named as VHHs (variable domain of heavy chain of HCAb [heavy-chain antibodies]), are derived from heavy-chain-only antibodies that circulate in sera of camelids. Their exceptional physicochemical properties, possibility of humanization, and unique antigen recognition properties make them excellent candidates for targeted delivery of biologically active components, includi...

background: brucellosis is still considered as one of the major zoonosis afflicting syrian health and economy. this disease is caused by members of the genus brucella which are gram-negative bacteria living facultatively within mammalian cells during infection. objectives: in this paper, a strategy was developed to introduce a new generation of binders called nanobodies (nbs) in our combat aga...

Molecular imaging involves the non-invasive investigation of biological processes in vivo at the cellular and molecular level, which can play diverse roles in better understanding and treatment of various diseases. Recently, single domain antigen-binding fragments known as 'nanobodies' were bioengineered and tested for molecular imaging applications. Small molecular size (~15 kDa) and suitable ...

The generation of high-quality protein crystals and the loss of phase information during an X-ray crystallography diffraction experiment represent the major bottlenecks in the determination of novel protein structures. A generic method for introducing Hg atoms into any crystal independent of the presence of free cysteines in the target protein could considerably facilitate the process of obtain...

Nanobodies are single-domain fragments of camelid antibodies that are emerging as versatile tools in biotechnology. We describe here the interactions of a specific nanobody, NbSyn87, with the monomeric and fibrillar forms of α-synuclein (αSyn), a 140-residue protein whose aggregation is associated with Parkinson's disease. We have characterized these interactions using a range of biophysical te...

The detection of tumours in an early phase of tumour development in combination with the knowledge of expression of tumour markers such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is an important prerequisite for clinical decisions. In this study we applied the anti-EGFR nanobody (99m)Tc-D10 for visualizing small tumour lesions with volumes below 100 mm(3) by targeting EGFR in orthotopic human m...

Hereditary gelsolin amyloidosis is an autosomal dominantly inherited amyloid disorder. A point mutation in the GSN gene (G654A being the most common one) results in disturbed calcium binding by the second gelsolin domain (G2). As a result, the folding of G2 is hampered, rendering the mutant plasma gelsolin susceptible to a proteolytic cascade. Consecutive cleavage by furin and MT1-MMP-like prot...

P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is one of the best-known mediators of drug efflux-based multidrug resistance in many cancers. This validated therapeutic target is a prototypic, plasma membrane resident ATP-Binding Cassette transporter that pumps xenobiotic compounds out of cells. The large, polyspecific drug-binding pocket of P-gp recognizes a variety of structurally unrelated compounds. The transport of...